picked a handful of violets in my name

My weekend has come to a satisfactory conclusion, with all work completed on time, even with social media sanity breaks. \o/

Ellie has decided to Clean All The Things. The apartment totally needed it, but it was a little stressful to come in from Special Work Event after lunchtime and find Even MOAR Stuff in my bedroom.

Also, today I talked to my mom about getting a new computer. My Macbook is five years old!* It's still a perfectly adequate computer for my needs, except for two problems:

1. The fan makes loud angry noises whenever the computer is sleeped/hibernated/shut down, carried in my bag, and woken up again.
2. The plastic case around the screen and keyboard/trackpad has begun to chip off. Including right under where my right wrists rests when I'm mousing.

But, as my mother needs a new computer (hers is so old she can't update past Firefox 2, and she's understandably worried about Bad Shit From The Internet), we have decided she can have the Macbook, since she won't be moving it around or using the trackpad.

So now my goal is to locate the best Macbook for the least money. We have determined that it is a worthwhile investment to get a better computer than I need Right Now, because said computer will serve me for more years.

* I have been pretty impressed with the longevity of the Macs I've owned. 6 years, 4 years (would have been longer but Evil Ex stepped on it and refused to admit it was his fault the screen died), over 6 years (since AFAIK the iBook I gave to Cameryn is still kicking), and 5 years. Mom's iMac is 7.

*flop* I definitely ran out of spoons for socializing. I'm still suffering those effects.

Stuff that happened: I met a bunch of people! Including zeenell in meatspace for the first time, viklikesfic, cesy, cinco, eleanor_lavish, schuyler, melannen, libitina, merisunshine36, and lots of other people.

A+++ con, would attend again. (Already preregistered for 2012!)

( tl;dr )

It's tempting to leave you with no context for that subject. But not that tempting.

I first noticed the lovely snails in Jamaica Plain when I moved into this apartment last August. They get very large, and their shells are all sorts of pretty shades of brown. But all I've done so far is try not to step on them.

I was coming home from work today and noticed a couple of empty shells on the sidewalk, just under the overhang of the front hedge. Hm, I thought, and picked them up. I could make something with these.

I went back outside to see if I could find more empty snail shells, and I did. The area where the hedge encroaches on the sidewalk seems to be some kind of snail graveyard. (The neighbors' kids had a lot of fun staring at me as I poked the accumulated leaf/dirt/snail debris with a stick).

Eventually I wound up with a little pile that was just a smidge more than a handful. I'll need to clean them somehow (and I suspect some will not survive that step) because they're covered in leaf bits and dirt, and some of them still have dried snail-snot in them.

( Today's haul. )

And how was your day?

Poetry workshop meets Tuesdays and Fridays.

Workshop schedule cycles through the entire class. Everybody gets 4 chances to workshop things.

My day is the first Tuesday of any given cycle.

A new cycle starts this week.

I have written ~600 words of New Orleans themed poetry for the occasion. And I will be wearing this.

... but there's no way I would be coherent. Suffice to say, I had a fucking amazing time, both nights.

I am liking my job so far, although I need to get them to schedule me for some more hours. So far, I have checked one collection against its finding aid (some stuff missing, and two extra things not listed), interfiled stuff in boxes of negatives (holy shit are those heavy; somebody is supposed to move that whole collection into smaller boxes, and it may fall to me), and helped hunt through another collection for two missing folders (not found).

( And now about my classes. )

My mom called earlier. She wanted to tell me she had watched My Chemical Romance on Fuse (or at least as much of it as she could, with a storm fucking with the satellite dish). Also (dramatization):

Mom: And one of my students? I swear, he could be Gerard Way's son.*
Sofia: *seal clap* OMFG really?
Mom: Yeah. The first thing I noticed was his hair, but his whole face...
Sofia: *choked giggles* Eeee.
Mom: I said to him, '[name], do you know of a band called My Chemical Romance?'
Mom: And he sighed. 'Yes ma'am, I know I look like Gerard Way.'
Sofia: I kind of want to ask you to take a sneaky cameraphone picture of him or something.**
Mom: When I get the yearbook, I'll show you.
Sofia: *glee*

* I demand fic. I don't know what kind of fic, though. A variation on INOK-verse seems to be the logical choice.
** My mom totally doesn't have a cameraphone. And won't until that's the only kind of phone available.

Originally published at The Love Letter Sessions. You can comment here or there.

!!!!!!!!!!!

Northeastern canceled classes. All of them, all day.

If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going back to bed.

Yes, someone texted that to the bigass screens at the arena. Twice.

( freezing my nonexistent nuts off in line, and things that preceded that )

( the show )

( post-show fannish shenaniganating )

In conclusion: A+ would do again and again. Also, more fan gatherings kthnx.

ETA: my one not-blurry picture from GCH, my least blurry picture from FOB, and the sign, split into two parts (Patrick Stump stole our gay and LynZ gave it back).

My Italian prof. decided this Thursday would be a splendid day for a test. *sigh*

I got Viva La Cobra and polaroid #236 in the mail today. \o/ I will scan the polaroid if anyone wants to see. I also got some new loafers, because my current pair are very old and the treads have completely worn off.

Is it can be naptiemz now. zzzz

I am coming to you live from my shiny new MacBook.

It runs great and I am busy setting everything up (the migration assistant thingy is beyond helpful, though), and I'm having a bit of trouble getting used to the keyboard and trackpad. The keys are too far apart and they take more force than the iBook keyboards did, and the trackpad is just really huge.

iTunes is being an asshat, though. Apparently I need to update it before it will be able to open the existing library file? *headdesk*

Now I need to name it and its hard drive. Hmm.